Trump Proof Seattle

Trump Proof Seattle coalition members attend a city council hearing on the proposed income tax in May.

On July 10, 2017, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to create a city income taxto help finance priorities like the homelessness crisis, providing transit, offsetting federal budget cuts, and reducing current regressive taxes, including property, B&O or sales taxes.

The legislation will place a 2.25% tax rate on income over $250,000 year for individuals, or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. The tax will not affect any income earned below those thresholds.

This comes after years of work from the Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI) on strategies to reform our state’s inequitable tax system, which has not been updated since the 1930s. The first major push was in 2010 with Initiative 1098, which called for a statewide tax on income in excess of $200,000 per year to fund healthcare and education. This failed at the ballot statewide but passed strongly in progressive cities like Seattle.

So in early 2017, the Transit Riders Union teamed up with EOI to build a coalition called Trump Proof Seattle, which sought to protect Seattle from federal funding cuts to health care, environmental preparedness and other societal necessities. The coalition of community, labor, environmental, and social justice organizations united to pressure Seattle City Council to pass a tax on the very wealthy, who have historically paid an unfairly low share of taxes, in order to provide for the city’s residents.

On March 1, the Seattle City Council’s Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development & Arts Committee met for a “Lunch and Learn” session to discuss Trump Proof Seattle’s plan. Originally, the plan was to tax unearned income (capital gains, interest and dividends) for households with incomes above $250,000. View or download the presentation slides from that meeting here.

But the plan changed, and we pursued an income tax rather than a capital gains tax.

John Burbank emceeing the pre-vote rally in July.

Before the vote in July, John Burbank hosted a rally in front of city hall, including speakers including Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Kshama Sawant and Mike O’Brien; Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes; Nicole Grant, executive secretary-treasurer of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council; Michael Tamayo, vice president of the Seattle Education Association; Katie Wilson, general secretary of the Transit Riders Union; and Tiffani McCoy, organizer for Real Change.

But the fight isn’t over yet. Lawsuits have already been filed to stop the tax, which EOI and the City of Seattle are ready to fight to protect.

48 millionaires sent a letter to NY Gov Cuomo and the State Assembly as lawmakers weigh proposals for closing the state's $2.3 billion deficit—arguing that raising their taxes could provide the state with an additional $2 to 3 billion per year. https://t.co/kf0nec4OKk